Mexico to Grant Jared Kushner Top Honor for ‘Significant Contributions’ to Trade Deal

The Mexican government announced Tuesday they would be awarding President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner the highest honor that the country gives to foreigners.

Mexican officials said Kushner will be receiving the Order of the Aztec Eagle "for his significant contributions in achieving the renegotiation of the new (trade) agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada," according to the Associated Press.

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The pact, which was formerly known as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was renegotiated earlier this year and is now called U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. In his campaign, Trump pledged he would renegotiate NAFTA and made it a top priority, even calling the agreement the "worst deal ever."

The Mexican Foreign Relations Department released a statement praising Kushner, saying that he "played a fundamental role during the whole process, displaying decisive support for the trade talks … thus achieving satisfactory results." While the statement was positive, it prompted criticism from many people in Mexico, including prominent Mexican intellectual Enrique Krauze.

He called the decision to give Kushner the award "supreme humiliation and cowardice."

"Kushner is the son-in-law of the man who called Mexicans ‘killers and rapists,’" Krauze tweeted.

The decision to extend the honor comes just as Mexico's new president prepares to take office, the AP reported.

Outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto was harshly criticized for inviting Trump to Mexico while he was still a U.S. presidential candidate.

The decision to give Kushner the award comes days before President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office on Dec. 1.

Mexico has previously given the award to foreign leaders, dignitaries, cultural figures and philanthropists ranging from Walt Disney to Bill Gates.

Cameron Cawthorne is a Media Analyst for the Washington Free Beacon. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2013. Prior to joining Free Beacon, Cameron was a Legislative Assistant in the Virginia General Assembly and a War Room Analyst at America Rising.